This invention relates to devices used by physicians and the like for collecting a culture from a selected area of a patient's body and keeping the culture alive for a period of time until it can be tested. Such devices customarily include an absorbent swab for collecting the culture by swabbing a particular body area and they further include a container having its own supply of a culture-sustaining media. After the culture has been collected, the swab is inserted in the container to place the swab in contact with the media to keep the culture alive until it is ready for testing. The container preferably is a sealed glass ampoule which can be sterilized easily and effectively and which does not react with either the culture-sustaining media or the culture.
In Avery U.S. Pat. No. 3,890,204, such a device is shown as a package and includes an elongated glass ampoule and a separate swab comprising a swabbing tip carried on one end of a stem. Near one end, the ampoule is scored circumferentially so that the end portion may be broken off to permit the stem to be inserted in the ampoule through the open end and to immerse the tip in the culture-sustaining media. A closure member is carried by the other end of the stem and, as an incident to inserting the stem in the ampoule, this member closes the open end of the ampoule.